Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Trade Minister Veronika Nikishina said that on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN summit

SOCHI, May 19. /TASS/. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Israel may wrap up the work on setting up the free trade zone next year, Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Trade Minister Veronika Nikishina said on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN summit on Thursday.

"We plan to efficiently launch talks with Israel on the free trade agreement and would probably be ready to wrap it up next year," she said, adding that "not everything depends on us here."

Speaking about talks on preferential or non-preferential regimes, Nikishina said that the EEC plans to draw up the priority schedule, which will depend on the degree of readiness or benefits or the beginning of talks.

"Among them are China [regarding the trade and economic cooperation - TASS], Iran and Israel while we don’t have negotiation mandates for the rest though we have the results of the work of research teams - regarding India, Egypt and potentially Korea," she added.